MUMBAI: Number 2? Let them first prove their claim to the Number 3 position in the Tamil language channel stakes, affirms the marketing head of KTV, P Saravanan, reacting to Vijay TV's assertion that it has taken over the second position after Sun TV in Tamil Nadu.

Saravanan, in an official communiqu to indiantelevision.com, accused Vijay TV of using dubious methodologies to prove its contention that it was Number 2 behind runaway leader Sun TV. Saravanan says: "A channel-to-channel comparison was made (by Vijay) with just one-and-a-half hours of prime time and two hours of non-prime time. Does three-and-a-half hours of a 24-hour channel determine channel standings? That too when three-and-a-half hours was selected to include the cream of Star Vijay and the filler/re-run slot of KTV?"

Saravan's response was a rather delayed reaction to TAM data (for the month of August) put out by Vijay TV in mid-September that it had inched past Sun's sibling KTV to claim the number two slot in prime time.
(Refer to report Vijay TV claims to have inched past KTV for details)

Dissecting the 7:30 to 9:00 pm data issued by Vijay, Saravanan explains that KTV had Sun TV reruns between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm. At 8:30 pm the KTV night movie has just begun, says he. Commenting on the 12 noon to 2 pm band where Vijay Vijay claimed a share in the C&S AB 4+ category as 10.6 to KTV's share of 3.6, Saravanan says that between 12 noon and 1:30 pm there are filler film songs on air. At 1:30 pm the afternoon film just begins. The comparisons are just not valid is the point that Saravanan tries to establish.

Saravanan further states that it is the 7 pm to 11 pm prime time audience share that defines channel standing and for the month of August it was 13.03 per cent for KTV and 6.72 per cent for Vijay TV, he asserts.

Fastforwarding to the current situation, Saravanan says that in the 8 pm slot, the re-run that started from 16 September of Sun TV's highest ever rated soap Chitthi, which had ended its innings on Sun last year, had put paid to Vijay TV's top prime time serial Kavyanjali on the ratings front. Average TVRs for KTV the week that Chitthi relaunched was 6.35 while for Vijay's Kavyanjali it was a mere 3.32, asserts Saravanan.

"KTV is way ahead of the No.3 in the TN market. We do not see Vijay TV in the third position bracket also with others," Saravanan concludes as a parting shot.

Vijay TV was relaunched in October 2001 with the joint blessings of Star India and UTV. KTV is an exclusive Tamil blockbuster film channel, launched in the last quarter of 2001 to counter the formidable competition posed by the revamped Vijay.